IEEE P1901 Draft Standard
for Broadband over Power Line Networks: Medium Access Control
and Physical Layer Specifications

Report on the
meetng held 2 September 2010, via teleconference

In August 2010, the second recirculation sponsor ballot
on Draft 4.01 yielded 81% affirmative votes. 6 comments
were received.

During the meeting of 2 September 2010, the P1901 working
group completed resolution of the 6 comments received, and
consequently, draft 4.01 remained unchanged. A third recirculation
was not needed since the received comments were not new
comments but were restatements of comments from previous
rounds of balloting.

Draft 4.01 is now submitted to the IEEE-SA Standards Board
for consideraton as an IEEE Standard at the 28-30 September
board meeting series.

June 2005 - PAR approved
November 2005 - Adoption of the general
work flow - Formation of a sub-group to develop unified
requirements
January 2006 - Approval of the use cases - Decision to split
the requirements into three clusters: In-Home, Access and
Coexistence/Interoperability
March 2006 - Approval of the down
selection process to achieve the baseline of the standard
- Approval of the description of topologies.
September 2006 - Approval of the channel and noise models.
February 2007 - Approval of 400 requirements split into
three clusters: access, in-home and coexistence - Calls
for technical proposals
June 2007 - 12 proposals received; 4 proposals per cluster
of requirements
July 2007 - 11 proposals passed the low hurdle vote; 4 in-home
proposals, 4 access proposals and 3 coexistence proposals
September 2007 - Only two proposals per cluster remain for
consideration after voluntary mergers.
October 2007 - One in-home proposal and one access proposal
remain as candidates for confirmation after the first round
of elimination voting.
March 2008 - A single coexistence proposal remains as candidate
for confirmation after the last round of elimination voting.
July 2008 - The first round of confirmation voting for the
in-home, access, and coexistence proposals is held. All
three votes fail.
September 2008 - The second round of confirmation voting
for the in-home, access, and coexistence proposals is held.
The votes on the in-home and access proposals fail. The
vote on the coexistence proposal is ruled invalid because
the number of abstain votes exceeds the established percentage.
A reset vote is held for in-home and access yielding a single
proposal for confirmation in the in-home cluster, and two
proposals for the access cluster. A voluntary merger in
the access cluster is announced at the end of the meeting,
bringing the total for access to a single proposal.
November 2008 - The first round of confirmation voting for
the in-home and access proposals is held. Both votes fail.
December 2008 - The second round of confirmation voting
for the in-home, access, and coexistence clusters is held.
All three proposals are confirmed.
February 2009 - A tentative table of contents of the Draft
Standard is adopted and four Technical Subgroups are formed
to merge the confirmed proposals and develop a unified document.
July 2009 - The first Draft Standard is created. The Draft
is sent for comment and vote on whether it is ready to go
to Sponsor Ballot.
October 2009 - Development of the ITU-T G.hn Compatible
PHY/MAC Draft option is stopped. Related chapters and annexes
are removed from the Draft.
December 2009: Comment resolution on Draft 1.0 completed.
January 2010: Draft 2.0 is circulated for comment and vote
on whether it is ready to go to Sponsor Ballot.
February 2010: Draft 2.0 receives 100% approval from the
WG, affirming that it is mature enough to go to Sponsor
Ballot. The comments received on Draft 2.0 are addressed,
and Draft 3.0 is generated. The WG decides to move Draft
3.0 to Sponsor Ballot.
April 2010: Initial 30-day sponsor ballot on Draft 3.0 receives
81% affirmative votes.
June 2010: Draft 3.0 comment resolution is completed. Draft
4.0 is generated. The WG decides to move Draft 4.0 to recirculation
Sponsor Ballot.
August 2010: Draft 4.01 comment resolution is completed.
The second recirculation sponsor ballot on Draft 4.01 opens.
September 2010: The second recirculation sponsor ballot
on Draft 4.01 yielded 81% affirmative votes. Draft 4.01
is submitted to the IEEE-SA Standards Board for consideraton
as an IEEE Standard at the 28-30 September board meeting
series.

About IEEE P1901

The working group, formed in June 2005, has grown from
20 to more than 50 members. Members are corporations, government
agencies, trade associations, universities, and standards
developing organizations. Each entity has one vote.

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